Subject: TOP 10 'CENSORED' STORIES OF 1990
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/* Written 7:57 am Apr 23, 1991 by christic in cdp:christic.news */
/* ---------- "TOP 10 CENSORED STORIES OF 1990" ---------- */
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TOP TEN CENSORED STORIES FOR 1990
Project Censored, Sunday, Feb. 24, 1991
ROHNERT PARK--The limited media coverage given to the events which led up to
the Gulf War was cited as the top under-reported issue of 1990, according to a
national panel of media experts.
... The second most under-reported story of the year focused on the botched
and expensive solution to the savings and loan crisis while the third ranked
story explored the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the S&L scandal.
Now in its 15th year, Project Censored, a national media research effort
conducted annually by Sonoma State University, California, locates stories
about significant issues which are not widely publicized by the national news
media. [Founder and director of the project is Carl Jensen, professor of
communications at the university.]
The "ten best censored news stories of 1990" will be the subject of an
hour-long media documentary hosted by award-winning journalist Bill Moyers...
[The documentary, "Moyers/Project Censored," was aired on PBS stations on
Feb. 25.]
Following are the top ten under-reported stories of 1990:
1. Flawed coverage of the Gulf Crisis. Traditional press skepticism was the
first casualty in the days immediately following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
The media, concerned about appearing to be unpatriotic, fell into the unseemly
role of Pentagon cheerleaders for the administration. Even the Defense
Department spokesman, Pete Williams, admitted that "the reporting has been
largely a recitation of what administration people have said."
2. S&L solution is worse than the crime. The $500 billion, estimated to be
needed to bail out the savings and loan industry, is more than the entire cost
of World War II, in current dollars and including service-connected veterans'
benefits. The Resolution Trust Corporation, the Federal agency entrusted with
solving the problem, is now accused of producing a massive giveaway that will
make Teapot Dome look like a demitasse cup.
3. The C.I.A. role in the S&L crisis. The question of what happened to the
billions of S&L funds is partially answered by an investigative journalist who
found links between S&L's, organized crime figures and C.I.A. operatives,
including some involved in gun running, drug smuggling, money laundering and
covert aid to Nicaraguan contras.
4. NASA shuttle destroys the ozone shield. Dr. Helen Caldicott, world
renowned physician and environmentalist, warns that every time the space
shuttle is launched, 250 tons of hydrochloric acid is released into the air,
contributing to the destruction of the ozone layer.
5. Media blackout of drug war fraud. A top-ranked undercover agent, recently
retired from the Drug Enforcement Administration, reports that the
administration's widely-touted "drug war" is really a "psychological war,
aimed at convincing America through the press that our government is seriously
trying to deal with the drug problem when they're not."
6. What really happened in Panama? New reports from non-mainstream but
authoritative sources reveal that the legal foundations for the Panama
invasion, the Bush-Noriega relationship, the actual American and Panamanian
casualty figures and the post-invasion conditions in Panama have been
misrepresented to the American people.
7. The Pentagon's secret billion-dollar black budget. An investigation by a
Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative journalist exposed the Pentagon's secret
"Black Budget," which was once used to fund America's 11 intelligence
agencies, but is now being used by the administration and the military to
conceal the costs of many of their most expensive and controversial military
weapons.
8. The Bill of Rights had a close call. The mass media failed to tell the
public about the potential repressive impact of the Gramm-Gingrich anti-crime
bill introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the House in 1990. The bill called
for "A Declaration of National Drug and Crime Emergency," which critics say
would have essentially nullified the Bill of Rights had it passed through
Congress.
9. Where was George? Despite repeated assertions by President George Bush
that he was "out of the loop," new material from Oliver North's diaries,
obtained through a Freedom of Information lawsuit, provided additional
information that President Bush played a major role in the Iran-contra scandal
from the beginning.
10. America's banking crisis. Top economists report that the same economic
conditions that led to the demise of the savings and loan industry are now
eating away at our commercial banks and that the same kinds of accounting
gimmicks that hid the S&L crisis are being used to cover up the commercial
banking crisis.
The other 15 under-reported stories of 1990 were:
1. Conflict of interest over North's acquittal.
2. The chemical industry and its cocaine connection.
3. The big banks' role in laundering drug money.
4. The U.S. military's toxic legacy to America.
5. Media's VDT radiation stories that still don't make the news.
6. Bush-Mosbacher-Baker and their lucrative leaking oil barge business.
7. The America Library Association's fight against government secrecy.
8. The national media ignore C.I.A. misdeeds.
9. There was no massacre in Tienanmen square.
10. Does the medical establishment suppress alternative cancer treatments?
11. The United States and our global dumping grounds.
12. Malathion: death from the skies.
13. The C.I.A., the La Penca bombing and a murder indictment.
14. The return of electroshock: the "new, improved" psychiatric therapy.
15. The Congressional intelligence authorization act that would subvert the
constitution.
The panel of judges who selected the top ten under-reported news stories: Dr.
Dona Allen, founding editor of Media Report to Women; Ben Bagdikian, professor
emeritus, graduate school of journalism, University of California at Berkeley;
Richard Barnet, Institute for Policy Studies; Noam Chomsky, professor of
linguistics and philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Dr. George
Gerbner, professor, Annenberg School of Communications, University of
Pennsylvania; Nicholas Johnson, professor, College of Law, University of Iowa;
Rhoda H. Karpatkin, executive director, Consumer's Union; Charles L. Klotzer,
editor and publisher, St. Louis Journalism Review; Judith Krug, director,
Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association; Frances Moore
Lappe', founder and co-director, Institute for the Arts of Democracy; John
McLaughlin, executive producer, Oliver Productions Inc.; Bill Moyers,
executive editor, Public Affairs Television, Inc.; Jack L. Nelson, professor,
graduate school of education, Rutgers University; Herbert I. Schiller,
professor emeritus of communication, University of California, San Diego; and
Sheila Rabb Weidenfeld, president, D.C. Productions.
... Prof. Carl Jensen, who created Project Censored in 1976, said "This
media research project has been called an `early warning system' for the
nation. The number of military and financial and economic issues that were
under-reported in 1990 surely provided an ominous warning of what the United
States could expect in 1991."
Anyone interested in nominating a "censored" story of 1991 can send a copy
of the story to Carl Jensen, Project Censored, Sonoma State University,
Rohnert Park, California 94928. Deadline for nominations is Nov. 1, 1991.
[Reprinted with permission]
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